D&D 5E Halflings are the 7th most popular 5e race

[Umbran]

Hi, I created the dataset. I did not have any info on the "active status" (if they even have such a thing).

They do - D&D Beyond knows how often hit points go up and down, level-ups, short rests, and long rests get used, for example, and they can reasonably guess when someone's actually using the character in play. I didn't think D&DB exposed that to anyone else.

 

[Viking Bastard]

It's always so interesting to see data like that and how it can feel like you're living in some alternate reality to others.

In my personal experience, halflings are the most popular D&D race and by a margin, followed by (to my frustration) elves and then humans (by default). Tieflings have been coming in strong, though, in later years. The party of PCs without a halfling (usually a rogue) is rare.

On the other hand, those Paladin numbers seem insane to me. I have, in 29 years of gaming, never seen a Paladin PC in the wild, outside of the one I played decades ago in 2e.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Umm I meant that I’ve been banging the drum to get new races into the phb. Could honestly not care less about halflings.

I know it’s apparently cool or something to keep insisting that this is because I don’t like halflings. It’s really tiresome to be honest to be constantly mischaracterized like this.

Did you miss the part where I pointed out what I thought was a very strong point in favour of halflings?

Why do you feel the need to state that you don't dislike halflings? I mean, most people dislike one thing or another, I don't see anything wrong with that.

Tolkien changed elves because he considered the elves in the popular culture of his day to be "twee", which he clearly did not view as a positive. And it's easy to see the modern halfling as twee. For my group, that seems to be the appeal - they like twee! So, in addition to abundant halflings, we have recently had a harengon paladin hop into the game, pushing the tweeness up to 11.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I’m actually really curious what will happen with half elves. I’m sure they will get called out as a mixed heritage example in the phb. It will be very interesting to see if the number played changes.

My gut tells me that they actually won’t change that much. But I have zero reason to trust my gut. It’s a total guess on my part.

I would put the popularity of half elves down to mechanical strength (and Tasha's made them even stronger). I have only ever seen them played by optimisers, never by fans of Elrond or Tanis, or players who where interested in the idea of being caught between two cultures.

Take away the mechanical advantage and I would expect them to disappear.

Simon in HAT is a prime example, if it weren't for the slight points on his ears he is indistinguishable from a human. He is clearly only a half elf for the ability score bonuses.

 

[Oofta]

They do - D&D Beyond knows how often hit points go up and down, level-ups, short rests, and long rests get used, for example, and they can reasonably guess when someone's actually using the character in play. I didn't think D&DB exposed that to anyone else.

Does it really affect the resulting numbers though? How many people are going to use one of their half dozen characters to create things they aren't remotely interested in and have no desire to play?

 

[Umbran]

Does it really affect the resulting numbers though?

Well, that really depends on what you want to use those numbers for.

How many people are going to use one of their half dozen characters to create things they aren't remotely interested in and have no desire to play?

With respect, assuming they won't is just as bad as assuming they will.

The way to know if it impacts the numbers would be to compare numbers with, and without, a filter for active characters, and see if the results differ. This, of course, we cannot do ourselves - D&DB would need to do it for us.

But, the fact that we can't do it doesn't mean we can honestly go ahead without that knowledge, and claim we have an accurate picture.

Especially because, to be honest, we are unlikely to even think of all the relevant possibilities, and the nuances they create.

For example, last I saw D&DB describe it, it measures active characters in a given time period. Like, active characters this month, this quarter, or this year. I have D&D Beyond characters I built in the past, used for a while and are now inactive. So, clearly, "never intended to play" is by no means the only option.

Last I recall, the rate of campaign failure is pretty high - a lot of games, start, run for a couple of sessions, and then stop. We should not assume those characters instantly get removed - they may well stay until the user runs up against the limit, and then they'll delete one to make space. Those are characters they had interest in playing, but didn't play long for some reason.

 

[CleverNickName]

It's always so interesting to see data like that and how it can feel like you're living in some alternate reality to others.

In my personal experience, halflings are the most popular D&D race and by a margin, followed by (to my frustration) elves and then humans (by default). Tieflings have been coming in strong, though, in later years. The party of PCs without a halfling (usually a rogue) is rare.

On the other hand, those Paladin numbers seem insane to me. I have, in 29 years of gaming, never seen a Paladin PC in the wild, outside of the one I played decades ago in 2e.

I don't get the anthropomorphic ones at my table. One time, several years ago, I had a Tabaxi in the party...and that was the only one I've ever had, for the almost-40 years that I've been playing this game.

Halflings have always been the popular choice at my table for sneak-type characters. Elves are the most popular choice for spellcasters, and Dwarves and Humans are the most popular choice for warriors....but not always. There have been a couple of times where everyone in the party rolled up an Elf (the Elfquest comics were popular among my classmates in the 1980s). And I still get the occasional half-elf or half-orc, but they are pretty rare for my group.

 

[Parmandur]

I think dwarves have an easy-to-understand archetype which is understood across a variety of cultures and age groups. Being able to quickly comprehend how an option is defined is helpful.

I also believe that dwarves have managed to maintain a strong fantasy identity without becoming somewhat of an eyeroll-cliche, despite Dwarf (as an option) often being somewhat cliche itself.

FWIW, I don't use DDB. I'm not sure that I personally know anyone who does. I'm aware that many people do, but you're right that "anecdotal" is just that. Anecdotally, most of the people with whom I play face-to-face games prefer to do so in person.

In the past, WotC has said that the results of their studies of player choices and Beyond match up, so it's probavly roughly representative.

 

[Parmandur]

Does it really affect the resulting numbers though? How many people are going to use one of their half dozen characters to create things they aren't remotely interested in and have no desire to play?

From what the Beyond people said at the time, filtering for active characters didn't qctually make much of a difference in terms of the ratios of what Classes and Races were being used, but they privideded the filtered numbers a lot of the time duentonpopular demand.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I don't get the anthropomorphic ones at my table. One time, several years ago, I had a Tabaxi in the party...and that was the only one I've ever had, for the almost-40 years that I've been playing this game.

Skimming this thread, I see a lot of talk of taking this race or that race for the mechanical benefits, but I've not seen this behaviour at my table since 3e. This used to bug me back then, I've always felt that you should then commit to roleplaying your race as something distinct from a human.

Nowadays, I feel it's all about aesthetics for most players I meet in the wild. They mainly choose what they think looks cool, like a skin in a video game. Halflings and dwarves are the two exceptions to this, everyone else is just playing a human, but purple and with badass horns. This still irritates me a bit, but it feels innocent enough compared to the mechanical buffing.

Halflings have always been the popular choice at my table for sneak-type characters.

Same here and I have no real idea where my younger players get their halflings archetypes from exactly, which have much more in common with Dragonlance's kender than Tolkien's hobbits, despite none of them knowing anything about Dragonlance.